Charred Remains of 1,500-Year-Old Hebrew Scroll Deciphered

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A burned 1,500-year-old Hebrew scroll found on the shore of the
Dead Sea was recently deciphered, 45 years after archaeologists
discovered it, researchers in Israel have announced.

"The deciphering of the scroll, which was a puzzle for us for 45
years, is very exciting," Sefi Porath, the archaeologist who
discovered the scroll in 1970 in Ein Gedi, Israel, said in a
statement from The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The parchment scroll was so charred that it was illegible to the
naked eye. Only with advanced technology did the scroll reveal
the opening verses of the book of Leviticus, the third book of
the Hebrew Bible. [ The
Holy Land: 7 Amazing Archaeological Finds ]

Scorched scrolls

The researchers weren't expecting to be able to pull information
from the burned scroll.

"This discovery absolutely astonished us; we were certain it was
just a shot in the dark but decided to try and
scan the burnt scroll anyway," said Pnina Shor, curator and
director of the IAA's Dead Sea Scrolls Project.

The fire damage to the Ein Gedi scrolls made themimpossible to
open, so the IAA worked with scientists from Israel and abroad to
scan the scrolls with a microcomputed tomography machine
(micro-CT), which is "just like what they do in the doctor's
office but at a very high resolution, probably a hundred times
more accurate than the medical procedures that we do," said Brent
Seales, a professor of computer science at the University of
Kentucky. Seales analyzed the scans with a digital imaging
software that virtually unrolled the scroll and allowed him to
visualize the text.

Seales wanted to unpack the layers of the scroll to reconstruct
how the text would look if the scroll were opened. "Initially, we
didn't know if there would be writing, or what the writing would
be, so it was absolutely a big mystery revealed right at the
lab," Seales told Live Science.

'Garden of Eden'

The scrolls were unearthed in Ein Gedi, which translates to
"Spring of the Goat," a desert oasis on the western shore of the
Dead
Sea, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Jerusalem.
Based on ruins of a Chalcolithic, or early Bronze Age, sanctuary
dating to the year 4000 B.C., Ein Gedi's first known residents
established themselves there about 5,000 years ago.

The oasis is notable in the Bible as the site where
King David fled to escape the jealous and vengeful King Saul.
David survived and eventually succeeded Saul as King of Israel
from around 1010 to 970 B.C.

"Ein Gedi was a Jewish village in the Byzantine period (A.D. 4th
to 7th centuries) and had a synagogue with an exquisite mosaic
floor and a Holy Ark," Porath said. This marked the first time
that an archaeological dig had uncovered a Torah scroll in a
synagogue, Porath noted. [ Image
Gallery: Ancient Texts Go Online ]

The Holy Ark is a chest or cupboard, often ornately carved, with
doors that open away from each other to reveal the
Torah scrolls. These arks typically sit toward the front of a
synagogue.

Ein Gedi "was completely burnt to the ground, and none of its
inhabitants ever returned to reside there again, or to pick
through the ruins in order to salvage valuable property," Porath
said. During archaeological excavations of the burned synagogue,
researchers found fragments of the burned scrolls; a bronze,
seven-branched candelabrum (or menorah); the community's money
box holding 3,500 coins, glass and ceramic oil lamps; and perfume
vessels, Porath explained.

"We have no information regarding the cause of the fire, but
speculation about the destruction ranges from bedouin raiders
from the region east of the Dead Sea to conflicts with the
Byzantine government," Porath said.

Although the Ein Gedi scrolls were recovered not too far from the
well-known Dead Sea Scrolls, they are considered separate Seales
said, because they were found in a synagogue.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden from approaching Roman armies in
caves near Qumran in the Judean Desert, which extends east of
Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. The ancient scrolls weren't discovered
again until 1947, when a bedouin shepherd of Arab ancestry
happened upon them.

The iconic Dead Sea Scrolls date from the third to first
centuries A.D. Although Hebrew is most frequently used throughout
the scrolls, about 15 percent is in Aramaic, and several writings
are in Greek. The 230 manuscripts are often referred to as
"biblical scrolls" because they are copies of works that make up
the
Hebrew Bible.

On the newly decipheredscroll, the text (from the beginning of
the book of Leviticus), translated from the original Hebrew,
reads as follows:

“The Lord summoned Moses and spoke to him from the tent
of meeting, saying: Speak to the people of Israel and say to
them: When any of you bring an offering of livestock to
the Lord, you shall bring your offering from the herd or
from the flock. If the offering is a burnt offering from the
herd, you shall offer a male without blemish; you shall bring it
to the entrance of the tent of meeting, for acceptance in your
behalf before the Lord. You shall lay your hand on the
head of the burnt offering, and it shall be acceptable in your
behalf as atonement for you. The bull shall be slaughtered
before the Lord; and Aaron’s sons the priests shall offer
the blood, dashing the blood against all sides of the altar that
is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. The burnt
offering shall be flayed and cut up into its parts. The sons
of the priest Aaron shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood
on the fire. Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the parts,
with the head and the suet, on the wood that is on the fire on
the altar." (Leviticus 1:1-8).

The biblical text marks the first time a Torah scroll was found
inside a synagogue in any archaeological excavation, according to
the IAA.

"The knowledge that we are preserving the most important find of
the 20th century and one of the Western world's most important
cultural treasures causes us to proceed with the utmost care and
caution, and use the most advanced technologies available today,"
Porath said.

"This collection at the IAA is full of other fragments that might
be analyzed, so in a way, this is a beginning rather than an
ending," Seales said.